scholarly journals AgFact: Linking farmers with facts

Author(s):  
G.I. Ogle ◽  
A.L. Craigie ◽  
M.J. Baker

The AgLINK bulletin series dominated all agricultural and horticultural information publications from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, when it was discontinued. The collapse of such a high profile series raises questions about the viability of such a mechanism for linking farmers with facts. This failure highlights three key issues: the need to define and allocate the costs based on who benefits; the appropriate positioning of parties within the distribution chain; and a quality specification to which bulletins must adhere. We consider that AgFACT, the AgResearch pastoral agriculture information base which superseded AgLINK in 1997, should largely be cost neutral to science groups in AgResearch. However, the resources for providing information need to be met by science programmes, a cost which is outweighed by the opportunity to communicate with science stakeholders. The costs of distribution and retail need to fall with the other parties who benefit from the dissemination of this information - the retailer and the end user. We also consider that the role of AgResearch is in manufacture rather than sales to the public, which is best done by the agricultural service sector. AgFACT must maintain tight specifications, to ensure that it is relevant to farmers and other users, accurate and unbiased, and up to date. The penalty for not doing so is a loss of value and, moreover, a risk of it becoming a public liability. Keywords: AgFACT, AgLINK, agricultural information, information base, technology transfer

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Joyce

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the 2016 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and to compare them with those that took place in 2012. It seeks to evaluate the background of the candidates who stood for office in 2016, the policies that they put forward, the results of the contests and the implications of the 2016 experience for future PCC elections. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based around several key themes – the profile of candidates who stood for election, preparations conducted prior to the contests taking place, the election campaign and issues raised during the contests, the results and the profile of elected candidates. The paper is based upon documentary research, making particular use of primary source material. Findings The research establishes that affiliation to a political party became the main route for successful candidates in 2016 and that local issues related to low-level criminality will dominate the future policing agenda. It establishes that although turnout was higher than in 2012, it remains low and that further consideration needs to be devoted to initiatives to address this for future PCC election contests. Research limitations/implications The research focusses on the 2016 elections and identifies a number of key issues that emerged during the campaign affecting the conduct of the contests which have a bearing on future PCC elections. It treats these elections as a bespoke topic and does not seek to place them within the broader context of the development of the office of PCC. Practical implications The research suggests that in order to boost voter participation in future PCC election contests, PCCs need to consider further means to advertise the importance of the role they perform and that the government should play a larger financial role in funding publicity for these elections and consider changing the method of election. Social implications The rationale for introducing PCCs was to empower the public in each police force area. However, issues that include the enhanced importance of political affiliation as a criteria for election in 2016 and the social unrepresentative nature of those who stood for election and those who secured election to this office in these contests coupled with shortcomings related to public awareness of both the role of PCCs and the timing of election contests threaten to undermine this objective. Originality/value The extensive use of primary source material ensures that the subject matter is original and its interpretation is informed by an academic perspective.


Author(s):  
Alannah Tomkins

Medical practitioners who were accused of committing violent crime against the bodies of people other than patients presented both the profession and the public with a problem. Both professional bodies and the lay public desired doctors to be social heroes, inhabiting the role of expert witness and protecting the body rather than appearing as a defendant. This study of practitioners accused of either rape or murder finds the limits of medical competition, as men accused of rape were likely to be acquitted to courtroom applause. Medical murderers, on the other hand, offered the profession viable scapegoats to reinforce the impression that the medical fraternity was willing to admit to limited instances of wrong-doing.


2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-28
Author(s):  
Martien Versteeg

In 1987 Chris Smeenk wrote in this journal about the libraries of the Dutch art historical institutes. In the 22 years that have since passed many changes have occurred, perhaps most notably the merging of the many autonomous institute libraries into larger ones. Has this led to a more professional approach or was it caused by a search for more efficiency? Does this really matter? The fact is that Smeenk, or any other library user familiar with Dutch art history libraries, would hardly recognise the situation at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Maybe he would complain about the disappearance of the traditional academic institute librarian, but on the other hand he might be cheered by many other developments, such as the more central role of services for the public. Let’s take a look....


Author(s):  
Laura DeNardis

This chapter demonstrates the significance of the emerging field of Internet governance, highlighting issues over standards, names and numbers, and net neutrality, which are unfolding in a variety of contexts around the world, including the Internet Governance Forum. It describes how technology could bias outcomes across policy arenas, such as privacy or freedom of expression. Internet governance generally refers to policy and technical coordination issues related to the exchange of information over the Internet. Governance has had immediate implications for freedom of expression online. Despite the significant public interest implications, Internet governance is largely hidden from public view. A crucial role of Internet governance research is to evaluate the implications of the tension between forces of openness and forces of enclosure, examine the implications of the privatisation of governance, and bring to public light the key issues at stake at the intersection of technical expediency and the public interest.


2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy E. Parmet ◽  
Anthony Robbins

Public health professionals recognize the critical role the law plays in determining the success of public health measures. Even before September 11, 2001, public health experience with tobacco use, HIV, industrial pollution and other potent threats to the health of the public demonstrated that laws can assist or thwart public health efforts. The new focus on infectious threats and bioterrorism, starting with the anthrax attacks through the mail and continuing with SARS, has highlighted the important role of law.For lawyers to serve as effective partners in public health, they should have a basic familiarity with public health: how public health professionals see the world and the key issues they tackle. A practical grasp of public health can be acquired, and often is acquired, “on the job.”


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Silvia Gamboa-Cerda ◽  
Ignacio Villegas-Flores ◽  
Juan Emilio Medellín-Ramírez ◽  
María del Carmen Herrera-Chaires

Given the current importance of the role of teacher evaluation in higher education institutions, there is a need to know the current perception that students have of their teachers and use it as a reference tool for decision-making that positively impacts practices of the teaching-learning process, so this research allows to know the strengths and areas of opportunity of teachers of the basic accounting subjects of the Public Accountant degree offered by the Facultad de Contaduría y Administración of the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí and be used at first as feedback so that teachers make their actions conscious in front of the group and on the other hand serve the institution as an instrument in the design of actions that improve the performance of teachers in their work and thus achieve a Qualitative training of professionals in the accounting area. Finally, this research sets a precedent for both the UASLP and other institutions of higher education to analyze and improve the educational practices of the degrees they offer.


X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert Frroku ◽  
Massimo Rovai ◽  
Caterina Calvani

Project Financing for functional recovery of the “Forte dei Pianelloni” in LericiThe central theme is the Project Financing, a complex financial instrument that can potentially be used to give a new life to a state property with a strong historical and architectural value and in a state of neglect, through the use of public-private partnerships. This evaluation technique makes it possible to understand the economic and financial feasibility of an intervention both for the owner of the asset (the public) and for the private entity that puts the resources for the requalification / restructuring and will own the profits from the management of the asset. Therefore, assuming the role of a Private Financial Promoter, I developed the Preliminary Project and the Feasibility Study with reference to two possible uses. The work was divided in two parts: in the first part the Preliminary Project was a reworking of an architectural relief kindly lent by the municipality of Lerici to expose the current state of the structure adding also hints of history. Then I made two proposals: one hypothesis is a fancy project with Resorts & Suites and the other is a more affordable one with Hostel & Camping; I considered also the differences between the two proposals. To develop the work, the use of a drone for inspections and a 3D printing to create the plastics were also experimented. In the second part that consists in the Feasibility Study was developed through an analysis of the possible positioning on the market with respect to the project hypotheses, the definition of the restructuring, management and maintenance costs. There were also analyzed other fortifications in the Gulf of Spezia, that were already reconverted in other uses. This study highlights the economic and financial feasibility of both design assumptions.


Author(s):  
Montserrat Escribano Cárcel

RESUMENEste artículo se acerca al papel público que las religiones desempeñan en las democracias. Para ello es necesario que cultiven un doble afán. El primero, que mira hacia el exterior y sitúa a la religión católica entre el resto de esferas que definen nuestras sociedades plurales. El artículo cuestiona la tarea ética que puede ejercer esta tradición religiosa y que ha de reforzar el marco democrático en el que todas estas esferas se incluyen. El segundo, que mira hacia el interior de esta religión y ocupa la mayor parte de este artículo, gira en torno a la teología feminista desarrollada por Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. Su sentido crítico está transformando la identidad de los y las creyentes, los horizontes comprensivos religiosos y puede ayudar así a reforzar el papel de las democracias.PALABRAS CLAVERELIGIÓN, ESPACIO PÚBLICO, DELIBERACIÓN, HERMENÉUTICA CRÍTICA Y TEOLOGÍA FEMINISTA CRÍTICA.ABSTRACTThis article approaches the public part religions play in democracies. On the one hand, the Catholic religion has to be set amidst the rest of the spheres, which define our plural societies. In this first part, we will try to evaluate how the Catholic religion helps reinforcing the democratic frame in which it evolves. On the other hand, the largest part of this article will be devoted to the Catholic feminist theology developed by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza not only as a means of changing the identity of believers and their understanding religious horizons, but also as a way of strengthening the role of democracies.KEYWORDSRELIGION, PUBLIC SPHERE, DELIBERATION, CRITICAL HERMENEUTICS AND CRITICAL FEMINIST THEOLOGY


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julius Gathogo

Little has been written about General Chui (1927–1956), the unique and charismatic fighter during Kenya’s war of independence, yet he worked hand-in-hand with Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi Wachiuri, the overall commander of Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also called Mau- Mau fighters. Kibara wa Mararo, later General Chui, who came from Meiria residence, Mugaya state, Kamuiru village of Mutira location, Ndia Division of the present day Kirinyaga County, Kenya, became a household name, and a hero to the then marginalised African populace, after the famous Mbaara ya Rui Ruiru (battle of river Ruiru). In this war of 1953, which took place on the border of Nyeri district (which was elevated to a County in 2010) and the old Embu district (which constitutes Kirinyaga and Embu counties), Kibara wa Mararo disguised himself as a regional inspector of the police. Clad in full colonial army uniform, he was able to trick some security officers and the loyalists who were derogatorily called Tukonia (empty sacks). This made them quickly rush to meet their boss. In a twinkle of an eye, the coded language (kebunoko) was sounded calling the Mau-Mau fighters who eventually turned their guns on the officers thereby wiping them clean in one blow. It is from there that the Mau-Mau high command declared him an army general. Since then, he became known as General Chui – ‘Chui’ meaning the sharp leopard. As Kenya marked its 50 years of independence (1963–2013), with pomp and colour, the sacrificial role of General Chui re-appears as one wonders: how was such a military genius finally ambushed at River Rwamuthambi’s Riakiania mushy cave and subsequently shot dead by the colonial forces? Did the surrendering Mau-Mau soldiers betray him, General Magazine and the other fighters who died of gun shot wounds at the Riakiania scene? Again, what were his political ideals? In its methodology, the article begins by retracing the nature of Mau-Mau movement citing the key issues that possibly caused it. It then moves on to chronicle General Chui wa Mararo as a case study. The materials in this presentation are largely gathered through interviews and archival sources.


Author(s):  
Stephan De Beer

This essay is informed by five different but interrelated conversations all focusing on the relationship between the city and the university. Suggesting the clown as metaphor, I explore the particular role of the activist scholar, and in particular the liberation theologian that is based at the public university, in his or her engagement with the city. Considering the shackles of the city of capital and its twin, the neoliberal university, on the one hand, and the city of vulnerability on the other, I then propose three clown-like postures of solidarity, mutuality and prophecy to resist the shackles of culture and to imagine and embody daring alternatives.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document